Introduction

Nine-Dragon Screen is a kind of coloured glaze screen wall decorated with nine big dragons. It is often used in imperial family. There are four existing Nine-Dragon Screen including Datong Nine-Dragon Screen, Shanxi Pingyao Nine-Dragon Screen, Beihai Nine-Dragon Screen, Forbidden City Nine-Dragon Screen as well as the rare Yellow Rafter Wood Nine-Dragon Screen in Qiao Family’s Courtyard of Pingyao. The only Nine-Dragon Screen out of China is located in Chinatown of Toronto.
Datong Nine-Dragon Screen is located in Datong city. It is the biggest and oldest one which is built in Ming Dynasty. The height of the wall is 8 meters, length is 45.5 meters, and width is 2.02 meters. Nine vivid flying dragons are evenly distributed. Its narrow middle section is composed of 75 glazed tiles with images of oxen, dogs, deer rabbits and other animals. The areas around the dragons are supplemented with images of plants, mountains, stones, water and grass. In front of the Nine-dragon Screen, there is a pool which can reflect the lights of the screen wall.